Just seems odd to me that a CHARITY feels it can afford to exclude 50% of the population. Race for Life raises a huge amount of money for a good cause, I'll never deny that, but every year I can't help wondering if they could have raised double that figure if they'd allowed men?

Faith in Man retained then!!

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My old man said be an Arsenal fan........

Yes, I agree with you here...

But I think blaming race for life for being 'sexist' is completely wrong...

In the end of the day the money goes for cancer research UK, which is a charity that finanes all cancers so it doesn't matter that it is women only...

I'm sure a lot of women don't feel comfortable running with men...

The real issue here is that most of the money is raised for 'fashionable' cancer charities...

E.g. Women's cancer's (Breast cancer / ovarian cancer) and lukaemias get most of the research money, however, lung cancer, prostate and colon cancer charities are not heard of and get practically nothing...

These are very significant cancers... Lung cancer, for example, has by far the highest mortality rate for a given cancer as the majority of people (~90%) will die from it...

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/can...tality/?a=5441

Colon cancer and prostate cancer is fundamentally a problem with screening (in my opinion) and not with money...

We have had national mammography and smear tests programs for women cancer's (breast and cervical) for decades... And it works - dying from cervical cancer is vertually unheard of now...

However, there is no prostate cancer screening and colon screening only came out a couple of years ago but probably 30 years too late... It is pretty shocking that this is the case considering the lives this could save... Just look at the national statistics - colon cancer and prostate cancer, despite having signficantly lower incidence in the population compared to breast cancer, they have the same or higher mortality rates !...

The truth of the matter with cancer is still that if the cancer isn't removed surgically then it will kill you... Only a very small minority of cancers (testicular cancer and lukaemia) have had signficant cure rates with chemotherapy and radiotherapy alone... Most treatment is to prolong life... If you have inoperatable cancers then the chance of a cure is next to none... The reason that breast cancer death rates have dropped is primarily due to screening programs and by rapid access to surgeons i.e. by reforms within the health system and not by people raising money for charities... Much of the recent research money in latest years has been thrown into expensive monoclonal antibody anti-cancer treatments... You here about these things in the news (e.g. Herceptin) but they have been next to useless clinically... Throwing money at anti-cancer charities may make people feel good but as to the good it actually does in reality, this is debatable...

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Caught me running - Tiesto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOyDWOMqajU

A slight aside, but I noticed that in this week's Marketing magazine, the Prostate Cancer charity* are advertising for a Marketing Director*, so maybe awareness will start to improve.

* Forgive me if I've got the precise names and titles wrong - there were no jobs I was interested in so I didn't bring it home!

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I am going to add another dimension (possibly controversial) to this discussion. I have personally stopped supporting Cancer Research UK because I despise their tactics for fundraising. They hire these aggressive young people to hang out in Edinburgh and harass people to set up a direct debit donation to the charity. I don't mind direct debits for donation per se, but they refuse to accept cash. I personally do not want to set up a direct debit, but would be more than happy to give a few quid once in a while, but they refuse it. This is a charity that will not accept you throwing cash at their representatives, but hire people who will give you s**t if you don't spend 10 minutes setting up a direct debit with them. The final straw was when my friend was confronted by one of these people and politely declined, and the guy shouted "It's for cancer you know. It's really serious", making out like she didn't care. As she had been fighting breast cancer herself for a year, this was extremely upsetting. Until they stop these aggressive tactics and accept cash donations, I will not support any of their work.

I didnt realise it was a womens only run! I have sponsored a friend to run the race in Edinburgh and there was me thinking I would have enjoyed taking part, but I guess I can't now because I have man bits!
Both my grandfathers had cancer, my mother has cancer and I class Cancer Research as one of my main charities, Im a bit miffed that they are now saying men can't take part because the ladies didnt want us! I find that hard to believe......

Very odd....

O.

Unfortunately, if you start excluding charities on the basis of whether they use chuggers, I'm not sure there'd be many nationally known charities left to donate to.

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I work in the West End of London and outside my office is one of the most popular places for "Chuggers" to stand as it is a busy, touristy street. It can be for a number of different charities but at least 2 days out of 5 it is Cancer Research UK. I too find it a little odd that they are not prepared to take money donated to them as cash, in the same way that they will not allow men to run and raise money in Race for Life. Why are they picking and choosing where donations come from???? Are they a charity or not? Surely any donation should be welcome?

As for the comment about sexism at Race for Life I still stand by this. Race for Life is NOT a serious, competitive race. The majority of people walk it, there are lots of older people and kids, it is designed to be a bit of fun and raise money for a good cause. In what way would this suddenly become sinister and threatening if men were allowed to enter???? There are also the men only Bobby Moore Trust races - that is all well and good but it means that families cannot enjoy these events together! Men cannot run or walk with their daughters and women cannot run with their sons (unless they are infants)? How family friendly is this really?

The comment that this event raises a large amount of money for a good cause is quite right and I've never denied that, but could they not be making a lot more by not excluding half the population?

It seems the answer would be to promote the mens race more (and have more than 8 of them nationwide!!??) as most people know nothing about it. Maybe there could be mens and womens "elite" races for the runners and then a mixed "stroll"?

And yes Revenged you have hit the nail on the head on the other matter I mentioned. You are quite right in saying that colon and prostate cancer have a lower incidence than breast cancer but a far higher mortality rate, making it in my book more dangerous! And how many of us really know much about prostate cancer? Yet most of us know at least a bit about breast cancer! It is almost a taboo subject???

I totally agree that the current screening process is no better than useless. Men should be tested on a regular basis in the same way that women are. It is a fairly quick and easy (if admittedly slightly unpleasant) procedure to check the prostate! My cancer was only detected because they chose to check on it while I was at the hospital for another procedure. Even then they very nearly didn't do it but by pure chance they did and it may well have saved my life! I'd bet there is a huge majority of men out there who have never been checked? It's disgusting and it needs to change.

Bobbyd14, you don't happen to work on Baker St by any chance, do you? I used to work there and going out at lunchtime was a constant struggle to get past the chuggers. Shelter were the main offenders then.

I'm pretty sure there's a good reason why they can't take cash donations there and then, though. I expect that to allow them to collect cash in the street, as well as direct debits, would require different licensing or different/much more complex administrative arrangements. I don't think it's just that they're being choosy.

Back to the RfL - I just went onto the RfL website to find where I could send feedback, and there was absolutely no way to do it. In the contact us section, there's a phone number saying please don't call us unless you have to as it costs us money. Well why don't you have a web contact form, or at least an email address, then, you fools?!

I think if men were allowed, it could potentially be even more of a relaxed event, as you could have whole families going round together. As bobbyd14 says, it's not a proper race, you don't get an official time, so although there will always be competitive people, I really cannot see why including men would make it less of a good atmosphere. There were loads of male supporters waiting at the finish for people and I didn't notice the good atmosphere disappearing when we rejoined our menfolk

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I feel good... da da da da da da

It annoys me they make out they are doing it as volunteers, when they earn something like £8 for every DD signed up for. No wonder they're persistent.

My advice is run away from them - fast! Shouting "Already got a DD with you, mate" over your shoulder...

Actually screening isn't done like that... Prostate screening is only a simple blood test to measure the levels of PSA (prostate specific antigen) in the blood... The problem is that the test isn't very accurate and so NICE won't fund it on the NHS for the entire population (i.e. the rates of false positives are high and it would mean a lot of unnecessary surgical prostate biopsies)... Enlarge prostate glands are common in elderly men and the majority remain in this state (benign prostatic hypertrophy) and never develop into cancer as they tend to die of other causes before prostate cancer takes hold... So it is not all that simple as it may seem... However, it does save lives - in america they screen all men over 50 for prostate cancer and the death rates for prostate cancer have fallen...

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Caught me running - Tiesto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOyDWOMqajU

Bagpuddycat I had the same problem on the Race for Life website but you can send an email query via the Cancer Research UK website through the contact us section/FAQ section. I explained my reasoning and suggested they look at this forum. I'll leave it at that as they do good work and I don't want to waste too much of their time, they are a charity after all (not so's you'd guess by some of their practices!).

Good info Revenger you obviously know your stuff. What worries me is the "over 50" bit. They are the higher risk category I agree but I was 29 when my cancer was detected more by luck than judgement and I wonder how long it may have taken otherwise? Would I still be here moaning? ;-)

Personally I raise money for and strongly support MacMillan Cancer Support having seen the work they do in action. They were a great help and support to both myself and my Nan when we suffered from cancer and I feel they are the unsung heroes of the medical profession. And they allow ANYONE to donate in any way and are grateful for it unlike it seems with Cancer Research UK!

How about this one, I was looking at a 10k race next year, all setup by a charity in aid of a charity cause - and when you follow the links you get to a certain site, and have to become a subscriber and pay to find out any more about the race...

Not really the way to get people enthusiastic I would have thought?!

As it happens cancer research are doing loads of 10ks this Autumn, so will be a good opp for all those sons and daughters, mums and sons and brothers and sisters to run together

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/10k/

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My Running Blog -

I emailed a query to Cancer Research UK regarding this subject and have just received the following reply, thought you may be interested:

Thank you so much for emailing Cancer Research UK to express your concerns raised by our Race For Life event. I can assure you that your comments are very important to us.

Firstly, I would like to apologise if we have given you the impression that we are a sexist charity and that this has made you feel as though you don't wish to donate to us. To us, men and women are equally important. To think that we have given you, a recovered cancer sufferer, the impression that we are trying to alienate men and that we are turning away 50% potential fundraisers causes me great concern and I would like to assure you that this is really not our intention.

The link that you kindly provided which states that "no men" are allowed to participate in our Race For Life is an accurate statement. The event was designed specifically to increase fitness in women and also make the female participants aware that cancer is a non-discriminatory disease which effects everyone regardless of gender. You may be interested to know that even though this is a female only event, all of the money raised goes directly into research for ALL types of cancer, which includes those that one would normally associate with men.

I really do appreciate that people are often unaware of that fact and that Race For Life does often appear to be more heavily marketed than other events. But this is mainly because it has raised so much money for the charity. This year for example, we expect to raise over £40 million pounds for our vital work through Race For Life alone. At the same time, Cancer Research UK promotes other running events that do include men. As you pointed out, this includes Run for Moore which is a male only event and the 10k run in which welcomes both male and female partipicants . Because the Run For Moore event is a relatively new venture, there unfortunately aren't as many races available in the UK, but the more funds it raises and the more we make people aware of it the more prolific it will become. It was very encouraging to hear that you would like to participate in one of these runs and we hope to be able to cater for more localities in the future.

I'm was also sorry to read that you feel as though we don't support prostate cancer as much as breast cancer. You may be interested to know that our website contains a large amount of information about prostate cancer which can be accessed if you take a look and the following link http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=2657. Whilst I appreciate that a lot of publicity is given to breast cancer, we are committed to raising awareness of all types of cancer which was the main reason for the setting up of the "cancer help" section of the website. I'm sorry if we led you to think otherwise. In April 2006, Cancer Research UK was spending around £7 million on prostate cancer research and nearly £1 million on testicular cancer research each year. This makes us one of the major funders of prostate cancer research in the UK. However, we recognise that the situation for prostate cancer research in the UK is still not perfect. Prostate cancer is relatively under-researched, especially considering its growing incidence. As a result, in 2001, Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health established two prostate cancer research collaboratives, to expand the research activity, strengthen links between research groups and encourage more scientists to work in the prostate cancer field. The collaboratives are now overseen by the National Cancer Research Institute. It is very much hoped that this exercise will stimulate interest in prostate cancer research and generate more skilled researchers, so that many more high-quality research proposals will be submitted and funded. You may be interested to know that a prostate cancer web portal, called 'UK Prostate Link' was launched in November 2005. Jointly funded by the Department of Health and members of the PCCA - including Cancer Research UK - the website can be accessed via: http://www.prostate-link.org.uk/.

Additionally, you may interested to know that a large proportion of our scientific spend each year is designated to what is known as basic research i.e. the study of cancer at a cell level. This understanding allows us to improve our knowledge and can work towards treatments for all types of cancer, obviously including prostate and breast cancer.

I do hope that this email has addressed your concerns. I am sorry that you felt that we are a charity who wish to alienate men and who deem men less important and I hope that this email has helped to improve your opinions of us. I would like to assure you of our best intentions at all times.